ESCAPE FROM FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23829, 3 December 1940, Page 8

ESCAPE FROM FRANCE

TWO BELGIAN MINISTERS GERMAN AGENTS ELUDED ~~ [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Not. 1 Two middle-aged men. one tall, ons short, both unusually well dressed —two men whom Hitler and his agents havo done everything possible to prevent reaching London, sat down to dinner in a West End hotel last night. M. Pierlot, Belgian Prime Minister, and M. Spank, Foreign Minister, who have been dogged by Himmler's Gestapo ever since they denounced King Leopold's capitulation in May, have at last joined their Cabinet colleagues in London. They have joined M. Gutt, Finance Minister, and M. de Yleeschauwer, Colonial Minister, who, in agreement with their colleagues, hare established the Belgian Government here, and they will continue the struggle for the liberation of their country. A week ago M. Pierlot and M. Spaak were "Spanish peasants." To-day they join King Haakon and Queen Wilhelmina in London as leaders of their countries and allies of the British Empire. Since they denounced their Kings action and appealed to all Belgians to tight on against the invader these two men have had two narrow escapes. They escaped to Spain from France, when that nation, too, capitulated, after a perilous journey across a secret pass in the Pyrenees. They had to walk long distances in disguise. Their route across the Pyrenees was once known only to smugglers. lu Spain they met Nazi intrigue. At the urgent request of the Germans they were arrested and held prisoner for three weeks. for their release were made, it is uuderstood. by the British and French Governments. One night they were told, "lou are free to leave the prison, but you must report to the police each day. ' They decided to escape. They did so, and they arrived in Lisbon. When asked to fill in the gap in their story, they said: ■'What does it matter how we came? We are here."